Ouyahia: “If France’s apology was to bring more, Ben Bella and Boumedienne would have requested that”

The newly-elected Secretary General of RND party, Ahmed Ouyahia, has pleaded for the promotion of the Algerian-French relations stressing that the “Vietnamese solution” is the best to deal with the vexed issue of the colonial past, which is at the origin of manifold tensions between Algiers and Paris.

Mr Ouyahia, in his first media appearance after being acclaimed as the RND Secretary General at the end of last week, said that “in such tricky situations, only the economic interests of both countries hold sway”, as he put it.

He added that one cannot deny the relations between France and Algeria … except for demagogues, even if they are sometimes “ambivalent” owing to the somber colonial past which still poisons the bilateral relations because of the sensitivity of the thorny issue.

As evidence of that, he pointed to the last commemoration of 19th-March 1962, the anniversary of the cease-fire, which was celebrated by some French people and not by others, because they see it as a defeat of France in Algeria.

Regarding the fate of the proposal to criminalize colonialism, some elected officials are trying to get this proposal out of Parliament’s drawers by re-launching it, Ahmed Ouyahia said that if a formal apology from France for its heinous colonial crimes could bring more, patriots like Ben Bella and Boumediene would have prompted France to  do so in the early days of Algeria’s independence.

“If the latter didn’t request so from France, this is doubtless that they were utterly convinced that apology or excuses were not the appropriate answer”, he emphasized.

Mr Ouyahia further pointed out that we must think above all of building our great country and duly ensuring the welfare of our population by making it grow exponentially before speaking of excuses.